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A rise in the number of flood-affected people and areas has increased the interest in new methods and concepts that account for this change. Citizens are integrated into disaster risk reduction processes through participatory approaches and can provide valuable up-to-date local knowledge. During a field study in Eberbach (Baden–Wuerttemberg, Germany) sketch maps and questionnaires were used to capture local knowledge about flooding. Based on a previous study on urban flooding in Santiago de Chile, the tools were adapted and applied to river flooding in the city of Eberbach, which is regularly flooded by the Neckar River, a major river in southwest Germany. The empirical database of the study comprises 40 participants in the study area and 40 in a control area. Half of the participants in each group are residents and half are pedestrians. Purposive sampling was used, and the questionnaires aimed to gather demographic information and explore what factors, such as property, influence the risk perception of the study participants. The results show that residents identify a larger spatial area as at risk than pedestrians, and owning property leads to higher risk awareness. The flood type influenced the choice of the base maps for the sketch maps. For river flooding, one map with an overview of the area was sufficient, while for urban flooding a second map with more details of the area also enables the marking of small streets. The information gathered can complement authoritative data such as from flood models. This participatory approach also increases the communication and trust between local governments, researchers, and citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between spatial abilities and spatial representations of large-scale environments was examined with children between 7 and 12 years of age. Subjects were 172 2nd, 4th and 6th graders from different neighborhoods in Magdeburg, Germany. They completed paper-and-pencil forms of Piaget''s Water-Level-Task, the Rod-and-Frame Test and the Mental-Rotations-Test. In addition children were asked to draw sketch maps of their neighborhood. Performance measures in the three spatial tests were modestly related to each other. There were close to zero correlations between most measures of cognitive mapping and spatial-test performance. An analysis with structural equation models confirmed a model with the two uncorrelated second-level spatial factors spatial ability and spatial representations of the environment. Results also indicate that each second-order spatial-ability factor consists of three subfactors, each representing one of the spatial tests. In contrast to previous studies, the results clearly support the distinction between (1) large-scale spatial tasks where the observer is part of the environment and cannot see the whole space of interest from one point of view, and (2) small-scale spatial tasks, on the other hand, where the spatial relations of objects can be seen at once. The implications of this distinction for our understanding of spatial cognition are discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]